iPod Art

Prior to 2001, Apple was a struggling computer manufacturer, trying to deal with Windows based machines and software; many have written them off, but they dropped the iPod in 2001, and it has to be one of the defining items of the 2000’s. Since launching on October 23, 2001, the iPod has sold over 240 million units worldwide as of January 2010. Here are some creative iPod digital art renditions.

iThe iPad is a Comedy Gold Mine

College Humor goes in again at Apple and their recent iPad device – which we all know, is such a bad name for a product, but I am sure we will get used to it – just like we got used to the ‘Nintendo Wii’.

Associative Qualities of the Mac Culture

Buy Yourself a Personality: MacBook

In my little opinion, Macbooks are not much superior to Windows and/or Linux based computing systems. The price of a Macbook can range anywhere from the $1300-$2500 and they are only optimized for their performance in memory intensive usages such as audio recording/editing and video rendering. If you are even doing Photoshop image manipulations, and you are not working with RAW files, then you do not necessarily need a MacBook. If you are reading this, and don’t even know what Final Cut, Compressor, Avid, Motion 4, Pro Tools, then you are one of those people that I like to call ‘Buying a personality’.

Cool & Trendy Factor
There is some statistic that states that out of the Personal Computing market, Apple has like less than 5% of the market share; so having a MacBook will automatically make you stand out from the pack; combine with Apple’s sleek and stylish design, people will gravitate and ask you asinine questions about your MacBook. Which essentially forces the individual to become a ‘Mac Ambassador'; someone that can give advice and their opinion about their Mac experience – and resoundingly enough it will bend toward the positive. Thus, when people become the Mac Ambassador they are embracing and becoming one with the ‘Mac Culture'; which can be defined as a free-spirited, creative, liberal, defying convention, eager individual – whom values his/her individuality from conformity (conformity being Windows culture). Those qualities will then be expressed in their clothing and swag; which is perfectly captured in the popular ‘”I’m a Mac, he’s a PC” ads.

Now, this isn’t ‘Mac resentment’ or ‘hate'; the Apple OS is a unique user experience that in my opinion is slightly better than Windows, but the cost differential is not worth it if you plan on using iMovie or iLife, or watching video on YouTube. You have to give Apple some props though, they have done a creative maeouver in giving the perception that when you buy a MacBook – which is essentially a plethora of computer parts made by other manufacturers (just like Windows machines) – you are not only being a computer, but you are buying a lifestyle. And that ‘lifestyle’ is priceless.

Toshiba signs up for Blu-ray

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10306235-93.html
– this must be a big blow to Toshiba’s psyce; if you didn’t know, Toshiba was behind the now defunct HD-DVD format which went head-to-head with Sony’s Blu-Ray format … of course, Blu-Ray won the format in 2008, and takes Toshiba well over a year to start producing compatible DVD players.

Defining an Era or Error: The Walkman

A look at the first portable music device

The Walkman was an essential item to have growing up in the 80’s and 90’s; it was today’s equivalent to the iPod. The Walkman allowed one to bring their music with them in a handy portable device, as the popular format of the day was the tape cassette. The tape cassette was, and still stands as a unique format that allows for easy recording and playback. Think about it, to record music to a CD, you got to start your computer, load CD Burning program, wait for it to write – for a tape cassette, just put it into the tape player, connect to an input source, and hit record. Voila, you have an instant portable piece of music. I think that the tape cassette will be around for a few more decades as it is still useful, and since car manufacturers have only stopped building tape decks from around 2005, they will still be relevant.

A bit of history for the Father of the ‘iPod':

Walkman is Sony’s portable audio cassette player brand, now used to market its portable audio and video players. The original Walkman introduced a change in music listening habits, allowing people to carry music with them. The device was built in 1978 by audio division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent transpacific plane trips. The original Walkman was marketed in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan, the Soundabout in many other countries including the US, Freestyle in Sweden and the Stowaway in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkman

Sony was the obvious pioneer for the portable digital music player, and I believe the brand name (Walkman) still lives on in Sony’s line of digital music players (competing with the iPod) and their partnership with Ericsson Mobility (bringing the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone). But Sony is far, far, far behind Apple’s iPod as they got on the digital music player bandwagon too late – if Sony had marketed their iconic Walkman brand as a digital music device a bit earlier, they could have maybe impacted the affect of the iPod, and garnered a greater share of the billion dollar digital music industry that Apple dominates.

I still have my Walkman, and it still works, but I mess with the iPod Touch … sorry Sony! Another fail – as Sony is currently losing a market that they CREATED.

Nerban’s week in Tech – July 24/09

Its been awhile, but better late than never right? Some interesting links from the world of technology to keep you up to date on the ever changing technological landscape for better, faster, and quicker access to the things we love (__________ insert that here).